We are on the trail again, searching and seeking the best Eggs Benedict and breakfast the gulf coast of FL has to offer (okay we are narrowed down to Sarasota, Vamo, Osprey, Nokomis, Venice, North Port, Englewood)
Max's Table is our 6th entry and quiet embarrassingly the only restaurant we can WALK to easily. (we moved here almost a year ago and have NEVER been here?????) It's about time after 8:30 mass we scooted on over around 10 am. (pictures attached)
Nice place, easy and parking plentiful and free. Also lots of places to sit and wait if need be. The entire restaurant is almost 'surgically clean' and new. Tables, chairs, booths are all sturdy and comfortable. Seated after a brief wait, the place was packed. Plenty of wait staff and the kitchen looked 'orchestral' with folks whizzing back and forth behind the pass-thru gallery.
Service with this kind of customer demand and frequency has to be good......and it was fantastic. Our server was pleasant, gave us generous time and actually seemed to be enjoying the banter and the working there. It showed and it felt very good to eat there. The other diners also seemed to be very satisfied. A few seed to be holding court and where likely regulars.
Okay, enough of that. My daughter got the avocado toast and a side chocolate pancake. They have a house and also Cary syrup (yes I sampled the pancake???? because I can't review it if I haven't tasted it right? :-) ) I could easily have had a stack of them , maybe the next time? The avocado toast my daughter said was very good. Nice bread and it had some nice and eatable tomato slices. Good tomato products here (see later). 8/10
My wife got one of the reference standard for our contest/tests an Eggs Benedict Florentine (eggs, spinach, English style muffin, tomato, Hollandaise sauce and in this case bacon) The eggs were PERFECT. The tomato was nice not runny / watery slice that was quick grilled/seared, the sauce was light and wonderful not some oily buttery goo. REALLY top notch. The spinach was saute and very nice......a little wetter than I like BUT since the tomato was firm and 'crisp' it didn't end up soaking the lightly toasted and lovely muffin bottom. My wife and I agreed the bacon pieces were not additive or needed, but ok. She did not want them, no harm no foul. I acquired 1/2 this dish for 'tasting' ; we both agreed a 9/10.
The grits my wife got were truly southern authentic and tasty. Not swimming in a sea of separated butter or other additives. IT just tasted GOOD. Great side. Well done! 9/10
The hash browns on my dish were perfect as well. NOT some quickly cut chunks of quartered potatoes flash cooked but still starchy dry bake potatoey on the inside. These where hashed down and grilled and cooked brown all around - textbook. Awesome and thankfully a normal, restrained portion because I was going to eat every bit of it. 10/10
I have seen a few seafood attempts in the world of Eggs Benedict (btw I am 80 to 85 meals out of 90 in a month a Whole Food Plant Based eater - but for this breakfast adventures I am letting my non-veganish hair down!!! I am an adult and a selfish unethical vegan actually. (wink) )
.....so Max's Table has an Eggs Benedict and Lox. I really wanted to try that. We had had a shrimp Eggs Benedict and it was amazingly good a few weeks ago (well great actually if you can find that review......) I still wanted/need to have the gold standard Eggs Benedict and Ham (in this case Canadian Bacon). So with only a very little bit of schmoozing and polite asking I got one of each. (picture somewhere.) The Eggs Benedict and Lox was fantastic, I did not think this would go well together? My mind with Lox and Whitefish salad has always been stuck at places like the Posh Nosh in Philly and the Jewish Deli's in New York and Long Island. WELL this worked out extremely well. The Lox, the eggs, the Hollandaise sauce, muffin.......wife 'acquired' half and we gave it a Siskel & Ebert - TWO THUMBS UP. 9/10
The other Eggs Benedict on my plate was the Eggs Benedict and Ham. This is the Gold Standard in Eggs Benedict. and happily as you can see with the above.....ALL the ingredients in the kitchen plus the expertise to prepare and cook it all come together like a song. The eggs - perfect, the Hollandaise Sauce - exact and spot on!, the ham/Canadian Bacon was nice product baked/grilled lightly, tomato lightly grilled and not wet/mushy, and the English muffin - awesome. a little magic dusting of spices on top for color and bouquet and this is the home run you were hoping for!!! 10/10
We had a great time here at Max' Table. The food IS breakfast defined. Service exceptional and the people terrific.
We are going through the whole list over the months in the off season. Then we will have the TOP 3 battle it out for a repeat visit.
Max's just bumped one of the others out of the top 3 spots!!!! read more